Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

New owners of an Indianola mobile home park are requesting Al Warren perform costly repairs or remove his home if he wants to sign a lease with them on the lot where he has lived for 33 years. Warren, who feared he could become homeless, said the park is working with him to help him move into another unit. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

Al Warren points to the heavily deteriorated walls of his mobile home on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, in Indianola. Warren said he has struggled to afford repairs to his home and has not been successful in finding outside assistance. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

Al Warren said last week he feared becoming homeless if he could not satisfy the new owners of an Indianola mobile home park who are requesting his home undergo costly repairs or be removed. This week, he said the park appears to be working with him as he attempts to move into another home across the street. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

Al Warren talks about his fears of becoming homeless if he cannot satisfy the new owners of an Indianola mobile home park who is requesting his home undergo costly repairs or be removed. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

The state of Al Warren's mobile home has prompted the new owners of the Indianola mobile home park where he resides to force him to make costly repairs or remove the unit. Warren, who has resided here for 33 years, says he is going to have to move out of the home. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

The state of Al Warren's mobile home has prompted the new owners of the Indianola mobile home park where he resides to force him to make costly repairs or remove the unit. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

Al Warren said last week he fears becoming homeless if he cannot satisfy the new owners of an Indianola mobile home park who are requesting his home undergo costly repairs or be removed. Warren, who has lived in the park for 33 years, said this week that park ownership appears to be working with him to move into another home. Bryon Houlgrave, The Register

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

When the 65-year-old Indianola man started packing the belongings in his mobile home more than three weeks ago, he wasn't sure if he would have another home to put them in.

New ownership at North American Mobile Home Park, where he has lived for 33 years, had been asking him to rehabilitate the place since shortly after it purchased the park in the fall. As the July 1 deadline to sign his new lease approached, he said he was told he couldn't sign a lease for his lot because of the condition of his home.

Warren's red-and-gray trailer was built in 1984, and he admitted it was run-down. The siding and windows needed to be fixed, and everything needed a new coat of paint, he said. But Warren said his fixed income and physical condition were hurdles to repairing it on his own.

"I thought maybe I'd get some help by now," he said in an interview earlier this month.

Signing a lease would effectively obligate him to make repairs or let the park do them for him then charge him over the next 12 months.

That's still too expensive on less than $800 per month of fixed income – more than half of which goes toward his lot rent, he said.

Warren had a backup plan: When one of his neighbors across the street moved out, she agreed to sell him her trailer for $1. Warren bought it, but he was told he needed to pay to demolish his existing home before he could purchase a single lease for the new property.

Al Warren fears becoming homeless if he cannot satisfy the new owners of an Indianola mobile home park, who are requesting his home undergo costly repairs or be removed.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave, The Register)

Then, on Friday, he received a three-day notice to vacate both residences, or ownership would begin the eviction process. He hadn't signed a new lease yet on either property.

North American is among five mobile home parks in Iowa that has been purchased over the past year by Utah-based Havenpark, the same company that is raising rents by 69% at a mobile home park in Waukee and by amounts ranging from 20% to 58% at parks in eastern Iowa. In Indianola, Havenpark plans to conduct monthly inspections of the homes and hold them to certain standards.

Havenpark issued a statement that it wasn't refusing to let any resident sign a lease, but it acknowledged that in Warren's case, signing a lease would have obligated him to make the upgrades to his home, or to pay Havenpark to do them for him.

Warren would need to sign leases on both lots, the statement said.

"What was not an option was refusing to repair the home, or abandoning the home without removing it so that the lot could be leased to someone else," the statement said.

The park said it offered connections to nonprofit groups and to give Warren free paint for the outside of the home earlier, but he originally "out-of-hand refused" the offer. Warren said he declined the paint because it wouldn't have fixed all of his issues. He had trouble finding outside assistance on his own, he said.

Reached by the Register on Monday, Warren said he was at last working toward a solution. Someone was tearing down the old mobile home, and he was moving into the one across the street.

He's still figuring out how to come up with the money, but Havenpark has been helping to connect him with service organizations.

Warren said Monday he believes he will be responsible for a late charge on both leases, as well as still need to pay rent for the last few weeks at his former lot. But he thinks he shouldn't have to pay anything since he has been trying to work with Havenpark all these weeks and kept hearing different answers from the park.

"'Yes you can move in.' 'No you can’t.' That went on for three to three-and-a-half weeks," he said.

Alex Kornya, litigation director with Iowa Legal Aid, which has been working with residents of mobile home parks purchased by Havenpark, said he could not speak to the specifics of Warren's case since Warren was a client.

But he said it's not the first time Iowa Legal Aid has seen a landlord-tenant issue come up regarding mobile home repair. But it is uncommon in Iowa to see rising standards at existing mobile home parks, or a sort of "manufactured housing park gentrification," he said.

"A lot of these parks are owned by people who just sit and collect income," he said. "I think the Havenpark model is new for Iowa and unusual for Iowa. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying it's different."

Kornya said situations like this are difficult because on one hand, parks do need to maintain housing standards.

Iowa Legal Aid

Those with landlord-tenant disputes can contact Iowa Legal Aid, which offers free civil legal assistance to the elderly, low-income, veterans and other vulnerable groups. To contact the organization, call 1-800-532-1275.